Damnation Festival Retrospective : A Second Decade of Damnation
by Dan Barnes
Yesterday, in Part 1 of this feature we looked at the first decade of the festival. Today we start off back in Leeds in 2015.
The excess of 2014 was addressed a year later as Damnation capped attendance to a more manageable level. The reduction in attendance, however, did not adversely affect the quality of the line up with a more sedate, though no less in-your-face bill being put together
Godfathers of the Gothenburg scene, At the Gates, took top spot as, like Carcass from two years before, the Swedes had ceased to be their own tribute act of the late noughties and had released the At War with Reality album to demonstrate their continued relevance to the scene.
Solstifir’s undoubted success on the third stage in 2014 saw them bumped up to a main stage slot and a packed refectory saw a consummate performance worthy of the trust shown by the festival organisers.
A reformed Altar of Plagues returned to the scene of their 2011 triumph and excelled amid a stage line-up that included Damnation favourites Maybeshewill and AmenRa. But it was headliners Mono, the Japanese post-rock instrumentalists, who were simultaneously mesmerising and head-scratching in equal measure.
It was good to see Primordial being given the headline slot on the second stage, atop of bill that was both punishingly heavy and intricately complex. The Irishmen delivered the kind of set they now regularly bring across the Irish Sea after too long away from UK stages, filled with passion and intensity, with Nemtheanga living out every word he sang.
Although not as overly heavy as the previous year, Damnation 2015 was a quiet assassin of a festival, a smiling killer hiding its diabolical intention behind a veil of reasonable respectability.
Main Stage: AT THE GATES / High On Fire / Solstifir / The Ocean / Oathbreaker / Savage Messiah
Terrorizer Stage: PRIMORDIAL / Asphyx / Keep of Kalessin / Vreid / Voices / Wiegedood / The King is Bling
Eyesore Merch Stage: MONO / AmenRa / Altar of Plagues / Maybeshewill / Crowns / Talons / Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster
Electric Amphetamine Stage: 40 WATT SUN / The Wounded Kings / Witchsorrow / Ghold / Sea Bastard / Ohhms / Undersmile
Looking at the lowest parts of the Damnation line up for 2016 it is pleasing to see the inclusion of names that would go on to create some ripples of their own. Svalbard’s 2020 album, When I Die, Will I Get Better? is a tremendous platter that would see the band reigniting Damnation five years later, whereas Venom Prison had been killing it since 2015 until their hiatus a few years ago.
Add Conjurer and Employed to Serve into the mix and Damnation show they are about more than filling slots and are focused on developing new talent.
Enslaved celebrated their twenty-fifth year with a second stage headliner and things got very dark and foreboding down in the Stagey McStageface stage with Dread Sovereign and Infested.
Up in the refectory the Damnation team had put together a novel idea of headlining: using three bands and giving each an hour in which to play. Although Electric Wizard closed the show, all three held co-headline status.
Wizard played it laid back and matched their 2012 set but Abbath’s show seemed unfocused and suffered for it.
Of the three billed headliners it was Cult of Luna with Julie Christmas, performing the Mariner album in its entirety, one of only five full performances from the band, that was not only the highlight of 2016 but is one of the finest performances to grace a Damnation stage ever. It had power, it had subtlety, it had atmosphere and was entirely captivating from beginning to end.
Main Stage: ELECTRIC WIZARD / ABBATH / CULT OF LUNA with JULIE CHRISTMAS / Oceans of Slumber / Hang the Bastard / Hark
Terrorizer Stage: ENSLAVED / Akercocke / Ne Obliviscaris / Venom Prison / Mithras / Svalbard / Attan
Eyesore Merch Stage: UFOMAMMUT / Black Tusk / Bossk / Sinistro / Erlen Meyer / Conjurer / Dialects
Stagey McStageface Stage: INGESTED / Dread Sovereign / The Infernal Sea / Employed to Serve / Darkher / Gets Worse / Kroh
The success of the triple headliner format played right into Damnation’s hands for their 2017 edition as it allowed Nick Holmes to do a double-shift fronting both Paradise Lost and death metal supergroup, Bloodbath. Sandwiched between Nick’s appearances were German thrash masters, Sodom who made something of an increasingly rare visit to British shores.
Elsewhere, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Dying Fetus and Nails turned the second stage into a writhing mass of bodies and Grave Pleasures has the dubious honour of headlining the small stage at the same time as Bloodbath trod the boards upstairs. From their incarnation as Beastmilk to the then most recent album, Mother Blood, Grave Pleasures repaid the faith of those missing Nick and co with a set of gothic, post-punk rock and roll.
Main Stage: BLOODBATH / SODOM / PARADISE LOST / Warning / Myrkur / Pallbearer
Terrorizer Stage: AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED / Dying Fetus / Nails / Dragged into Sunlight / Vallenfyre / Wiegedood / Disentomb
Eyesore Merch Stage: NORDIC GIANTS / Leprous / Agent Franco / Big Business / Psychedelic Withcraft / PG Lost / Body Hound
Tone MGMT Stage: GRAVE PLEASURES / Psycropitc / The Great Dischord / Mutation / Beyond Creation / Leng Tch’e / Wren
2018 had more of a low-key feeling about. Like it would be one of those overlooked shows that hundreds of people would claim to have been to. Napalm Death’s headline status had been assured for many a long year in light of their positioning as bone fide legends and one of the most reliable acts in the extreme music genre.
There was a real retro feel about the bill, too. Having Entombed AD, Vader and Cancer brought a sense of the old-school extremity to the proceedings, with the likes of Anaal Nathrakh, Fukpig and Insanity Alert reminding the younger attendees of the debt owed to those hardened road-dog acts.
Main Stage: NAPALM DEATH / Ihsahn / Entomed AD / Anaal Nathrakh / Ne Obliviscaris / Cancer
Tone MGMT Stage: VADER / Batushka / Celeste / Saor / Lik / Fukpig / Leeched
Cult Never Dies Stage: GHOST BATH / Mourning Beloveth / A Forest of Stars / Bong / Insanity Alert / Mol / Hundred-Year-Old Man
Eyesore Merch Stage: THE OCEAN / Monuments / Arabrot / Rosetta / Ohhms / Caligula’s Horse / Vola
Prior to the headliner announcement of 2019, the fifteenth iteration, Damnation revealed they had booked the biggest name yet for the show. Initially, Opeth might have seemed something of a tame way to close out the day, their Seventies-inspired direction a world away from those early progressive death metal records. But one thing Opeth have always maintained is the intensity of their performance and regardless of how the band may have moved away from the sound of Orchid, et al. that is something that cannot ever be taken away from them.
Ironically, even though Opeth played a set of songs spread across their post-millennial releases, they didn’t think to visit their Damnation album!
The festival pulled off a major coup in the booking of Norwegian legends, Mayhem and, along with former Gorgoroth and God Seed frontman, Gaahl, brought a huge chunk of Black Metal history to Leeds.
Venom Prison demonstrated their inexorable rise through the ranks of the extreme UK music scene with their headlining of the second stage, impressive when you look at the band’s elevation up the bill over the years.
Elsewhere, stalwarts of the festival were present. The likes of Raging Speedhorn, Primordial and Voices are always a welcome addition to the bill and are sure to always bring their A game to the proceedings.
Main Stage: OPETH / Mayhem / Alcest / Primordial / MGLA / Raging Speedhorn
Tone MGMT Stage: VENOM PRISON / Gaahls Wyrd / Birds in a Row / Inter Arma / Blood Red Throne / Carnation / Godeater
Cult Never Dies Stage: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT / Crowhurst / Monk / Voices / Earth Ship / Dawn Ray’d / The Infernal Sea
Eyesore Merch Stage: BIG BUSINESS / The Vintage Caravan / A Pale Horse Named Death / Jo Quail / Lord Dying / Wheel / Alunah
The first announcement for Damnation 2020 was issued in late February and featured Pig Destoryer, Onslaught, Pallbearer and Gatecreeper among others. Ultimately, as with all other live shows, global events rendered 2020 a fallow year.
What an event that could have been!
As the world shook off its slumber and started to return to normality, there was a distinctly British look to the likes of the Download Pilot, Bloodstock and Damnation, who would be leaving Leeds after this show and heading back to Manchester, to the Bowler’s Exhibition Centre’s cavernous confines.
Even though there had been bands announced, and tickets were on sale for 2022, focus was still on the 2021 show, and Damnation’s rise from the ashes. Much had been spoken previously of expanding the show and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to put in an extra night, just to welcome folk back to Leeds for one more go-around.
A Night of Salvation kicked off the weekend with album sets from Akercocke, doing Goat of Mendes, Svalbard, covering their When I Die Will I Get Better? Orange Goblin dropping in on each of their records and Raging Speedhorn bringing the night to a thunderous close by playing their self-titled debut.
It was the kind of evening that those countless days behind unlocked doors yearned for; it was like a pressure value had been opened and the Damnation faithful sighed a breath of relief. The whole-album play-through would become a staple of the Damnation experience, especially as the Night of Salvation became an integral part of the show.
The restrictions on the ability to book bands from too far afield allowed the organisers to compile a varied line-up of the nation’s best and up and coming artists. Established bands familiar to the festival, Paradise Lost, Onslaught and Godflesh topped the main stage in the refectory, with the mighty Carcass bringing the curtain down on Damnation’s tenure at the University.
We also we treated to sets from Memoriam, Conan – whose mammoth-heavy riffs seemed somewhat tame after watching Justin Broadrick and Benny Green doing their thing – Winterfyllth played an intimate show down in the smallest stage, alongside Hellripper and Esoteric, and the late withdrawal of the immensely popular Green Lung meant Svalbard got to play twice.
A triumph of a show and a fitting end to Damnation’s Leeds adventure.
A Night of Salvation: RAGING SPEEDHORN / Orange Goblin / Svalbard / Akercocke
Jagermeister Stage: CARCASS / Paradise Lost / Godflesh / Onslaught / Bossk / Evile
Tone MGMT Stage: MEMORIAM / Conan / Conjurer / Gama Bomb / Man Must Die / Party Cannon / Cryptic Shift
Eyesore Merch Stage: YEAR OF NO LIGHT / Regarde Les Hommes Tomber / Sylvaine / Svalbard / Dvun / Boss Keloid / Mountain Caller
Cult Never Dies Stage: ESOTERIC / Hellripper / Winterfylleth / Wode / Video Nasties / Urne / Abduction
Even before the 2021 event, tickets were available for this new beginning of Damnation, with the early confirmations of Converge, Pig Destroyer and Wolves in the Throne Room sitting beneath headliner Ministry; and all in Trafford Park’s eighteen-thousand square-foot confines of the Bowler’s Exhibition Centre.
Sadly, close to the event and Ministry was forced to cancel their whole European tour, giving Damnation the mother of all headaches. But, necessity is the mother of invention, the solution proved to be a triumph and kicked off the festival’s Manchester tenure in spectacular fashion.
The night prior expanded the Night of Salvation to five bands, including the first of two weekend slots for post-rock instrumentalists, We Lost the Sea, who played their Departure Songs album in its entirety, as well as taking a slot for the main event. French band, Celeste, bamboozled with a run through of the, then new, record Assassine(s), proving themselves to be returning favourite.
The absence of Ministry caused a little re-jigging and a rethink that would go down as some of the most inspired billing of recent years. Rather than seek a direct replacement for Al’s troop, Damnation brought in the equally industrial Godflesh – who’d been such a hit last year – and had four of the top five main stage acts play their classic albums.
Pig Destroyer did Prowler in the Yard, Godflesh performed the genre-bending Streetcleaner, At the Gates their seminal Slaughter of the Soul, and headliner Converge, the modern metal classic, Jane Doe. Add to that the presence of My Dying Bride and Full of Hell, plus more and it’s little wonder the bar was being set so high.
The main arena is only a part of the story, with the second stage hosting the mouth-watering line up of Decapitated, Despised Icon, Misery Index, Wolves in the Throne Room; and the smallest stage hosting Elder, Pallbearer and Green Lung, the latter of which proved to be an immensely popular show.
If there were worries about shifting to a larger venue, then Damnation 2022 showed the gamble would pay off.
A Night of Salvation: CELESTE / We Lost the Sea / Ithaca / Pupil Slicer / Mastiff
Pins & Knuckles Stage: CONVERGE / At the Gates / Godflesh / My Dying Bride / Pig Destroyer / Full of Hell / Insanity Alert / Irist
Holy Goat Stage: DECAPITATED / Despised Icon / Misery Index / Wolves in the Throne Room / Incantation / Stygian Bough / Oceano / Distant
Eyesore Merch Stage: ELDER / Pallbearer / 40 Watt Sun / Green Lung / We Lost the Sea/ So Hideous / Bruit< / Frayle
What does one do when you need to follow up such a momentous event as Damnation 2022? Does one consolidate, or does one go bigger?
Bigger it is, then! As for Damnation 2023, the Night of Salvation was expanded across all three of the Bowler’s stages and encompassed fifteen bands; five of who would follow We Lost the Sea’s example and pull double-duty this weekend.
Katatonia, Leprous, Enslaved, Akercocke and Sigh all delivered full renditions of classics albums on the opening night, playing Dead End Kings, Coal, Below the Lights, Choronzon and Scorn Defeat, respectively. But it was festival regulars, Bossk, playing their Audio Noir debut, who stole the whole night with a measuring performance, both visually, as well as sonically.
Bossk would get another, unexpected shot at Damnation 2023, when Ahab cancelled their Eyesore Merch stage appearance at the last minute, allowing the Ashford post-metallers another chance to play.
Main stage headliner, Electric Wizard, played it bluesy and jamming, Enslaved delved deeply into their history for a full version of their 1994 debut, Vikingligr Veldi, and Katatonia over-came some early gremlins to deliver emotionally wrought version of some of their more modern material.
The second stage was no place for the faint of heart as Coffin Mulch and Crepitation kicked off the mayhem, that would only get progressively more chaotic, ending with Deadguy, Rotten Sound and the always fantastically abrasive, Anaal Nathrakh.
Maybeshewill brought the curtain down on the third stage with a little more subtlety, the various aspects of black metal from Sigh and Downfall of Gaia, adding shade and texture to the event.
One cannot leave the 2023 event without mentioning both Amenra and Julie Christmas, whose mid-placing on the main stage would become the stuff of legends and produce performances of such intensity it’s a wonder the building was still standing for Katatonia, Enslaved and the Wizard.
Friday Pin & Knuckles Stage: KATATONIA / Leprous / Enslaved / Bossk / Viking Skull
Friday Holy Goat Stage: AKERCOCKE / Sigh / The Infernal Sea / Ninkharsag / The Sun’s Journey Through the Night
Friday Church Road Records Stage: DEADGUY / Heriot / Din of Celestial Birds / Inhuman Nature / Celestial Sanctuary
Saturday Pins & Knuckles Stage: ELECTRIC WIZARD / Enslaved / Katatonia / Amenra / Julie Christmas / Unearth / Khemmis / Nordic Giants
Saturday Holy Goat Stage: ANAAL NATHRAKH / Rotten Sound / Deadguy / Undeath / Strigoi / High Command / Crepitation / Coffin Mulch
Saturday Eyesore Merch Stage: MAYBESHEWILL / Bossk / Sigh / Downfall of Gaia / Ohhms / Ashenspire / Kurokuma / Laster
By the time 2024 rolled around Damnation had – to all intent – become a day and a half-event, with we punters looking to who would be playing the Night of Salvation as much as the main show. And if you couldn’t make it, then the pricing structure means you’re not paying for something you don’t use.
Black metal label, Cult Never Dies and Post-Metal specialists, Pelagic Records, sponsored the supporting stages this year, bringing the likes of Mizmor, Fen and Underdark, as well as Sugar Horse, A Burial at Sea and A Swarm of the Sun to Manchester. Those stages were topped by Cult of Fire’s dark invocation and LLNN pushing the boundaries of what heavy music can be, leaving the main arena to entertain with album sets from Discharge, Employed to Serve and The Ocean, while headliners, Decapitated -having very recently had to deal with an unexpected change in vocalist, recruited Eemeli Bodde to the mic, brought on a ghost of the band’s past in the form of Wojciech "Sauron" Wąsowicz for a run-through of death metal classic The Negation, and a few more besides.
That Cradle of Filth had not appeared at Damnation in its eighteen previous iterations is a head-scratcher, but Dani and company, took the main stage top honours, with the promise of an “Old School Ritual” of a set.
Say what you like about the Filth, but the band are long enough in the tooth to know exactly how to pull this off. Heaven Torn Asunder, Summer Dying Fast and the one-two-three of Malice Through the Looking Glass, A Forest Whispers My Name and Scorched Earth Erotica show the depth the quality the band possess.
Earlier, Texans Gatecreeper smashed the main arena to pieces, but it was Californian power violence cohort, Nails, who had every aspect of their being set to Kill. A.A. Williams opened the stage with a Damnation debut dripping with emotion and heartbreak as to make Katatonia’s sets last year look like party time. Never one to put in anything other than a stellar performance, Ms W set the tone for the day.
If the queues for Nails merchandise were long, they were dwarfed by the good people of Damnation looking to get their hands on a Dragged into Sunlight shirt. Headlining the second stage and playing their Hatred for Mankind album in its entirety, Dragged into Sunlight hauled the packed Holy Goat stage into a mire of misanthropy and despair rarely seen. Unrelenting and uncompromising, the likes of Boiled Angel Buried, Lashed to the Grinder and Stoned to Death are statements of intent.
Ahab, after their late cancellation last year, gave punters a way out of Dragged into Sunlight’s hopeless world view, on a stage previously occupied by Inter Arma, Hangman’s Chair and Aaron Stainthrope’s extra-My Dying Bride project, High Parasite.
Friday Lou’s Brews Stage: DECAPITATED / The Ocean / Employed to Serve / Discharge / Insanity Alert
Friday Cult Never Dies Stage: CULT OF FIRE / Mizmor / Morne / Fen / Underdark
Friday Pelagic Records Stage: LLNN / A Swarm of the Sun / A Burial at Sea / Sugar Horse / Norna
Saturday Pins & Knuckles Stage: CRADLE OF FILTH / Russian Circles / Bleeding Through / Nails / Ne Obliviscaris / Gatecreeper / Celeste / AA Williams
Saturday Holy Goat Stage: DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT / The Ruins of Beverast / Memoriam / Fuming Mouth / 200 Stab Wounds / Hexis / Gillian Carter / Enforced
Saturday Eyesore Merch Stage: AHAB / Inter Arma / Dool / Hangman’s Chair / Black Tusk / Rezn / High Parasite / Pijn
Which brings us nicely up to the Twentieth Anniversary expanded edition of Damnation for 2025. Two full days, with the Saturday being largely, but not exclusively, bands who are making their Damnation debut; and Sunday’s line-up being largely, but not exclusively, bands who’ve trodden the Damnation boards before.
It’s difficult to come to a judgement as to which Damnation shows I liked the best but, gun-to-my-head, I would say: 2009, due to the eclectic mix of bands, 2013, due to the sheer quality from start to finish, and 2022 because, well, look at that line-up – and I got to shake hands with Scott Hull from Pig Destroyer.
And my favourite ever Damnation performance? Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas performing Mariner in 2016. Utterly astounding.
Let’s see what the next twenty-years brings.
